In 2007, I wrote my very first published article. My mentor at the time mentioned to me that ProSource.net was looking for an article about protein. About half way into my graduate program, my PhD mentor asked if I wanted to write the article. A little overwhelmed, I was excited for the opportunity. Having only written a few newsletter articles for the YMCA (where I worked in Lexington, KY for the summer as a fitness specialist) I was really nervous about writing this article about a fairly new topic for me. My mentor introduced me to the world of sports nutrition and he had me doing a lot of research in the area of protein, creatine and beta alanine.
With a new topic comes new knowledge and I always love learning new things in the arena of health, fitness, exercise physiology and nutrition.
Oh, did I mention that they paid me to write the article!!! As a graduate student, my mouth nearly dropped to the floor when I heard I was going to get paid to write an article. Wow...perhaps I could one day write for a job (I thought to myself in the middle of my Master of Science program with nearly no money and a fairly new obsession with endurance running and triathlons).
Here's the article I wrote:
Eggs, Meat, Milk...Whey too many proteins
Fast forward 3 years and I have written hundreds of articles. Writing makes me feel good and I love putting my education to good use in order to educate, inspire and motivate others. If I don't have an article to write or can't make the time to write on my blog, I get a tight feeling in my chest like I need to release myself through my fingers. Often times, my brain gets filled with thoughts, ideas and sentences and I feel the need to write, write, write. I can't think of a single training session where I didn't zone out at least once and have an idea for an article. And as nice as it is to get paid to write an article, I have contributed dozens and dozens of articles to magazines, newsletters, internet sites and blogs...for free. I feel it is always nice to volunteer my time and more often than not, favors get returned. The triathlon community is just amazing and it's hard to be stingy in such a sharing community. I don't know a triathlete who doesn't enjoy helping out another triathlete.
My mentor and good friend Judy (VP of Iron Girl) mentioned to me that I should contact the editor of LAVA magazine about possibly writing for a new magazine, This was early this summer and the word was out that there was a new triathlon magazine for summer 2010. She knows that I am always looking for somewhere to publish my words (aside from my blog) so I contacted LAVA and after a few emails back and forth for about a month, I was finally asked to contribute. With a deadline of Sept 1st (just 2 weeks before IMWI and my last week of my Community Nutrition rotation) I new I had all summer to work on the article and it wouldn't be like me to wait to the last minute. Brainstorming was tough and another editor came up with the idea of doing "off season nutrition". I thought that was a fantastic idea and I the brainstorming continued. As you can imagine, writers have good and bad days and some days sentences quickly turn into paragraphs and other days, letters barely make it into words. But eventually, after several drafts, I finished my article for LAVA magazine and sent it in well before the deadline.
Here we are...almost 3 months later (after my deadline) and LAVA magazine arrived in my mailbox. And even better...it's the 2010 Hawaii Ironman Commemorative Issue!
Pg 20 is the contributor page and my article is on pg.144 "Have your Cake (just one slice) and eat it too". There was a little typo for my last name (I'm SUMBAL now..but I guess everyone knows me as Marni or Marn) but that's ok....I'm just honored to have my name in Print.
ENJOY!
With a new topic comes new knowledge and I always love learning new things in the arena of health, fitness, exercise physiology and nutrition.
Oh, did I mention that they paid me to write the article!!! As a graduate student, my mouth nearly dropped to the floor when I heard I was going to get paid to write an article. Wow...perhaps I could one day write for a job (I thought to myself in the middle of my Master of Science program with nearly no money and a fairly new obsession with endurance running and triathlons).
Here's the article I wrote:
Eggs, Meat, Milk...Whey too many proteins
Fast forward 3 years and I have written hundreds of articles. Writing makes me feel good and I love putting my education to good use in order to educate, inspire and motivate others. If I don't have an article to write or can't make the time to write on my blog, I get a tight feeling in my chest like I need to release myself through my fingers. Often times, my brain gets filled with thoughts, ideas and sentences and I feel the need to write, write, write. I can't think of a single training session where I didn't zone out at least once and have an idea for an article. And as nice as it is to get paid to write an article, I have contributed dozens and dozens of articles to magazines, newsletters, internet sites and blogs...for free. I feel it is always nice to volunteer my time and more often than not, favors get returned. The triathlon community is just amazing and it's hard to be stingy in such a sharing community. I don't know a triathlete who doesn't enjoy helping out another triathlete.
My mentor and good friend Judy (VP of Iron Girl) mentioned to me that I should contact the editor of LAVA magazine about possibly writing for a new magazine, This was early this summer and the word was out that there was a new triathlon magazine for summer 2010. She knows that I am always looking for somewhere to publish my words (aside from my blog) so I contacted LAVA and after a few emails back and forth for about a month, I was finally asked to contribute. With a deadline of Sept 1st (just 2 weeks before IMWI and my last week of my Community Nutrition rotation) I new I had all summer to work on the article and it wouldn't be like me to wait to the last minute. Brainstorming was tough and another editor came up with the idea of doing "off season nutrition". I thought that was a fantastic idea and I the brainstorming continued. As you can imagine, writers have good and bad days and some days sentences quickly turn into paragraphs and other days, letters barely make it into words. But eventually, after several drafts, I finished my article for LAVA magazine and sent it in well before the deadline.
Here we are...almost 3 months later (after my deadline) and LAVA magazine arrived in my mailbox. And even better...it's the 2010 Hawaii Ironman Commemorative Issue!
Pg 20 is the contributor page and my article is on pg.144 "Have your Cake (just one slice) and eat it too". There was a little typo for my last name (I'm SUMBAL now..but I guess everyone knows me as Marni or Marn) but that's ok....I'm just honored to have my name in Print.
ENJOY!